Schoolboy sends out tax reminders

A schoolboy is helping thousands of drivers renew their car tax and avoid government fines.

Harvey Millington, 13, sends out paper discs to motorists up and down the country, who run the risk of being hit with the costly fines, reminding them to pay the bill when it goes out of date.

Hundreds of people have been clamped for having an untaxed vehicle following the introduction of the new tax rules last year.

Harvey, who came up with the idea after noticing his dad's car no longer had a tax disc in the window, has so far made £3,000 from the venture - and business is showing no signs of slowing up anytime soon.

The year eight student, from Taunton in Somerset, sells and sends the paper reminders for £4 at a time. He has been trading for just eight weeks, yet received as many as 400 orders in one week alone.

Around 6,000 people missed the deadline to renew their road tax in March and were consequently clamped by a company working on behalf of the DVLA - having to pay between £500 and £800 to get their car back.

The figure involves a fine, release fee, back-tax, and the possible added hit of having to pay for a new MOT.

But Harvey is helping thousands of others avoid the prospect of a fine thanks to his brainwave.

Father Howard fronted the business with £2,000, paying for the website, cutting device, eight different disc designs and several pieces of advertising, while he also helped register it as a limited company because of his son's junior age.

Apart from that, though, the teenager has pretty much done everything.

Motorists enter their details, such as address and registration, online. Harvey then looks up all the dates and sends them a tax disc - the Welsh dragon and Batman symbol are the most popular - to put in their windscreen.